Changes of Heart
by The First Noelle
Summary: Berethor, Captain of Gondor, was sent to find Boromir. When he is joined by Idrial the elf, Elegost the Ranger, and Hadhod the dwarf, they form their own Fellowship. When a heart is broken, can a member of the Fellowship of the Ring heal it?


Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable from the movies, and none of the game characters. If I did, I would not be writing about them, I would be enjoying the money I made off of them by riding a horse.

Changes of Heart

Chapter One: Strange Voices

"Gimli!" Gandalf shouted after the dwarf as he ran into a room just visible through the great pillars in the halls of Dwarrowdelf.

The rest of the Fellowship ran after Gimli, not wanting to be separated if something evil were to find them. The room they entered gave them a hopeful sign at first: the first ray of sunlight that they had seen in four days. Then, as their eyes drifted down from the light, hopes seemed dim again. Here lay a grave. They all gathered around it while Gimli laid his head on its cold, hard stone. Gandalf gently touched the dwarven runes engraved into the grave.

"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria," Gandalf sighed sadly. "He is dead then. It is as I feared."

The silence in the tomb was broken only by Gimli's cries. Suddenly, Gandalf saw a book being held by the skeleton of the dwarf that was leaning against Balin's grave. The wizard bent down and picked it up, wiping the dust off of its cover.

"We must move on," said Legolas quietly, glancing at Aragorn. "We cannot linger."

The Ranger nodded in agreement, knowing that Legolas had more than one reason for wanting to leave Moria as soon as possible. The elf had told Aragorn earlier that he sensed that an evil was lurking deep in Moria. The other reason was that elves, and woodland elves especially, _hate_ caves.

The Fellowship all looked to Gandalf as he started to read from the Dwarves' book. Well, all of them save Pippin. The hobbit was looking at a skeleton that was balanced on a well so that it seemed like the dead dwarf was sitting there, frozen in the same position that he was in at the moment of his death.

"…We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the darkness. We cannot get out. They are coming."

_CRASH!_

The Fellowship all looked at Pippin, who watched in horror as the dwarf's skeleton tumbled down into the darkness. His horror increased as he watched as a chain quickly unraveled, pulling a bucket down into the darkness after the skeleton. An even louder crash was caused by the bucket, causing Legolas to wince, though it was barely noticeable.

The others looked to Gandalf as he told Pippin off, but Legolas kept his eyes on the well. He was sure that he had just heard a voice down from the bottom of the well. What more, it didn't sound like the voice of something evil or fowl, but of one of his own kind. Legolas did not hear the voice again, for at that moment, drums echoed up from deep in Moria, along with the squeal of goblins. They now had a battle to prepare for.

Idrial stopped suddenly, looking upwards in alarm.

"Hadhod! Move!"

The elleth's voice was commanding, and Hadhod jumped aside just in time to avoid a rotting corpse of one of his own kind that fell from a hole somewhere above them. _Elleth means elf-maiden._

"You fool of a Took!" The voice of Gandalf the Grey echoed down from above. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"

"It's Mithrandir! The Fellowship is close!" Idrial looked upwards, as though she expected to see the Fellowship. "We need to find them. Gandalf has been in Moria before, and he should know the easiest way to the Eastern Gate."

Idrial took a step forward toward a door that should lead to Dwarrowdelf, and then to the Fellowship. She was stopped suddenly, however, as Berethor, a Captain of the Citadel Guard, grabbed her shoulder.

"I think it would be best to deal with these orcs first, Idrial," Elegost, a Ranger of the North, spoke, drawing an arrow from his quiver and fitting it to his bow. "They are surrounding us!"

They all stood in a circle, back to back, as the orcs closed in. Thankfully, it was not too many, for most had gone after the Fellowship.

This group had formed when Berethor, about to be killed by one of the Nine, was saved by Idrial, a warrior elleth. The two of them had healed Berethor's wounds and gathered supplies, then gone off to aid the group of Elves from Lothlorien, who were being attacked by orcs.

Idrial had gone ahead to clear the path for them, when they were ambushed, but they had seen signs of battle up on the mountains that surrounded Rivendell, and they hurried to aid whoever was fighting the orcs.

As they had come up to the top of the mountain, they came upon a Ranger who was seemingly wounded and laying unconscious while wargs closed in around him.

Berethor, not about to let this man be eaten in front of their own eyes, ran forward, despite Idrial's warnings to stay put. At Berethor's yell, the Ranger jumped up, slicing a warg's head from its shoulders. After a brief battle, the man introduced himself as Elegost, Ranger of the North.

Elegost led the group towards Moria once he knew that they sought Lothlorien and the Fellowship.

On the way there, they found a friend of Elegost, who had been separated from the Ranger during a battle. Hadhod, the dwarf, then joined their group.

Hadhod was able to lead them to Moria, where they now were.

Thankfully, they were all competent warriors, and the battle was won with few injuries, and all of them minor. Idrial, an elf with unusual powers, was able to heal all of them without losing too much of her own energy.

**Review please! If you liked it, tell me that. If you hated it, tell me why you hated it. If you flame me, I will read it, try and figure out why you disliked it so much (or see if you just like flaming people), and then use the flame to make the Balrog, who is coming in a chapter or two, more frightening.**


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